CHESMAYNE
Numberology
The idea that there is a mystical and
religious meaning in numbers which is sometimes linked with sacred geometry and
attributes cosmic significance to the numerological proportions of buildings
such as the temple in Jerusalem and the Pyramids of Egypt.
Numerology is the study of the occult meanings of numbers and their
influence on human life.
According to an advertisement in Parade magazine
[Feb.25, 1996], the definitive text on numerology was written by Matthew
Goodwin, an MIT graduate who once worked in the personnel department of an
architectural firm. He learned “this
science of numbers” (as he calls it) from a clerk at the office. The ad is a pseudo-article, a print
“infomercial”, allegedly authored by J.J. Leonard, who is probably Goodwin
himself, since the ad is nothing more than an invitation to send him $9 for a
numerological reading worth “$80 or more”.
In his advertisement, he explains how numerology works.
“It
all starts with your name and birth date.
They are the data base from which a numerologist is able to describe
you, sight unseen. Number values are
assigned to the letters in your name.
By adding these - with the numbers in your birth date--in a multitude of
combinations, a numerologist establishes your key numbers. He then interprets the meaning of these key
numbers, which results in a complete description of your personal
characteristics”.
According to Mr. Goodwin, through numerology you can
“see all the diverse parts of your personality and how they uniquely come
together to make the person you are”.
This will enable you to “make the most of your strengths in a way that
wasn’t possible before”.
Just what do you think the numerical odds are either
(a) that a set of numbers associated with the letters of your name and your
birth date will reveal who you are and what you should do with your life, or
(b) that someone in personnel has figured out how to read those numbers? I’d say the odds are about zero. Nevertheless, numerology shouldn’t be brushed
off without a thorough examination of its underlying theory. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be
any. We are just supposed to take Mr.
Goodwin’s word for it that numerology works, even though we have no idea how it
works. That is, numerologists can
produce a “reading” for you, just as astrologers, biorhythmists
and Myers-Briggs can. And you will be amazed at how “accurate” the
reading is! You may not even be aware
at how selective
your thinking has become as you are dazzled by the accuracy of your reading.
When you get your reading, you may find yourself
ignoring the parts that don't fit you at all, and focusing on those parts that
do seem to fit. They may actually fit
you or they may fit your image of how you would like to be. No matter; if they fit, you may fall for
it. You may even be tempted to go one
step further and call your own personal psychic on one of the “friends” psychic
hotlines. (I think the $9 numerology
reading might be cheaper, though.) The testimonials
for
numerology and the telephone psychics are quite similar. Marriages are saved, jobs are landed,
personal problems are resolved and love is found.
I suppose some of the attractiveness of numerology and
psychics comes from the desire to find somebody, even a total stranger with no
knowledge of who you are, who will tell you that you are full of hidden
strengths and powers and who will reinforce your deepest needs and
emotions. At times, each of us feels
unloved, misunderstood, confused, and rudderless. The testimonials sound good, a friend is a
satisfied customer, and we are vulnerable.
On the other hand, there are many who seem to be waiting for the next
occult seer into the future, the past, the present - it doesn’t matter, as long
as someone else is doing the looking and will tell them what to do.
But the real attractiveness of numerology, over say palm or crystal
reading
or other non-numerical personality analysis and prophecy, is that numbers give
the quackery an aura of both scientific and mystical authoritativeness, especially
if complex statistical analysis is involved.
The ad mentioned above for Mr. Goodwin’s $9 numerological reading, cites
Pythagoras as the father of numerology.
Certainly, the Pythagoreans were a cult with esoteric notions about the
universe and numbers, including the notion of the harmony of the spheres. And, no doubt they found something mystical
about the relations of sides of triangles which we have come to know as the
Pythagorean theorem. But there is no
evidence that Pythagoras thought he could analyze his disciples personality by
assigning numbers to the letters of their names and their birth dates. For one thing, he would have realized the
unreasonableness of such a notion.
Different languages have different alphabets; different cultures use
different calendars. It is unreasonable
enough to think the universe is arranged according to numerical transcriptions
of names, but to think that there are several equivalent transcriptions to
accommodate cultural differences stretches the limits of credibility almost to
infinity. Even if the universe were so
unreasonably designed, how would we ever know which “reading” of a person’s
numbers is the “correct” one? Does the
concept of “correct reading” even have meaning in this so-called discipline?
It is one thing to recognize that many things in the
universe can be explained by reduction to mathematical formulae. The formulae can be tested and demonstrated
to be accurate or not. It is quite
another to claim that somehow the name you are given at birth was preordained
to coincide with the date of your birth and to be coordinated with certain
numbers so that certain special people (the numerologists!) could calculate
from this data who you are, what you will be, what you need and feel, and what
you should do. It is a long, long way
from Plato’s admonition to know geometry to those entering his Academy or from
Galileo’s assertion that Nature is written in the language of mathematics, to
the notion that my name is a key to who I am pre-destined to be. It is a misrepresentation of history to cite
mathematical mystics, or scientists who have been enamored of mathematics, as fellow travelers. In any case,
even if Pythagoras, Plato, Kepler, Galileo, and Einstein were all numerologists it would not make the theory
of numerology one iota more plausible.
See related entries on astrology,
the
Bible Code, biorhythms, the Forer
effect, the Kabbalarian philosophy, occult
statistics and selective
thinking.
further
reading
Dudley, Underwood. "Numerology: Comes the Revolution," Skeptical
Inquirer, September/October 1998.
Paulos, John Allen. Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its
Consequences (Vintage Books, 1990). $8.80
Michael Schneider’s “A Beginner’s Guide to
Constructing the Universe: The Mathematical Archetypes of Nature, Art, and
Science”. It’s an incredible tome of
info on numerology and sacred geometry.
The number twenty was at one time a base unit. It is seldomly used in English any more, it
is called a score, 4 score and –
One more thing concerning the numbers 8, 8, 64. The diameter of the Sun is 864,000 miles. Akhenaton, 18th dynasty pharoah who was a worshipper of Maat and promoted the One God as
“Aten”, the Solar Disk, was linked to the Essene mystery schools by a number of
metaphysical researchers. Christ may well have been
initiated by the Essenes. The number 37
has incredible properties and when multiplied by multiples of 3 creates
3-sequenced numbers (37 x 3 =111, 37 x 6 = 222, 37 x 9 = 333, 37 x 12 = 444,
etc.). 37 x 24 = 888, the Greek number
for the name Jesus. When we
insert the chessboard and
Schneider talks about 40: “In the classic symbolism of myth and religion,
the number forty marks a passing beyond a worldly or fourfold material
phase. This symbol of passage lends
significance to Noah’s rain of forty days and nights; it is also reflected in
the life of Moses, whose 120 years encompassed three forty-year phases and who
waited forty days on
“Alpha
Omega” = 43 = “Jesus Christ” we see that Jesus appears to have combined male
and female aspects in equality. After
all he did say “look inside yourself” and “to enter Heaven as a child”. What happens when you combine your inner male
& female?